This piece was written by a member of our spring Student Council. In it, she works with our familiar Student Opinion format, but also interviews young women to raise questions that go beyond the scope of one article.

As the Democratic National Convention approaches, more and more media outlets describe Hillary Clinton as the likely nominee. However, they have also highlighted the disparity between young female voters, who flock to Bernie Sanders, and older women, who lean toward Clinton. Strong ideological disagreements between generations of women have brought new questions forth on the changing definition of feminism.

What does feminism mean to different generations of women? How should political and ideological disagreements in the ranks of feminists be handled publicly? Should women unconditionally support public female figures by the tenets of feminism?

In the sun-drenched student center on the Pennsylvania State University campus here, a few days after Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont trounced Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire Democratic primary last week, Renee Tillman, Melanie Suarez and Kamryn Sandidge were picking at their lunchtime salads when they were asked if they considered themselves feminists.

The three, all sophomores, shook their heads. “I couldn’t even tell you what a feminist is,” said Ms. Tillman, 19, who is African-American. She and her friends note that the nation already has a black president; they see themselves in a postgender world. As Ms. Sandidge, also African-American, said, “I don’t find gender that important.”

A few tables away, Caela Camazine, a 19-year-old freshman, said she was “definitely” a feminist. Reproductive rights are her top priority, and the idea of a woman in the White House evokes her childhood dream of a career in medicine. It always bothered her, she said, when people referred to doctors as “he” or “him.”

“Having a female president to me means opening the door for that pronoun to shift,” she said. Yet she plans to vote for a man: Mr. Sanders.

It is as if Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, based partly on revealing the power of female voters, has instead revealed something else: a generational schism that threatens to undermine it. Mrs. Clinton lost the women’s vote in New Hampshire by 11 percentage points. Broken down by age, the results were even more striking: She led by 19 points among women 65 and older, but trailed by a huge margin, 59 points, among millennial voters, ages 18 to 29.

The responses to her campaign pitted mothers and daughters, set off debates about what feminism is and provoked reflection among women of all ages, evident in dozens of interviews and impassioned responses to an online query about whether it is important to elect a woman as president.

Students: Read the article, then tell us:

— What is feminism to you?

I interviewed some members of my own school community about this topic. Here is what they said, and some of the additional questions their responses raise:

— Savitha Krishnan, 18, commented: “Saying things like what does feminism mean to you … that gives women a chance beyond ‘I am a feminist, I’m not a feminist.’ It’s a scale, it’s a spectrum.” If there is a spectrum, what are its boundaries? Should it be shifted to adjust to new generations? If yes, to what should we be shifting the scales? What is appropriate for millennial feminism?

— Alicia Jen and Karen Shen, New Jersey high school students, touched on math and science as areas where they personally saw males more commonly leading or participating, though they also acknowledged that times may be changing. Do you agree that millennials may see less gender discrimination than their parents or grandparents? Is it time to adopt different forms of feminism? What might those look like?

— Regarding social media, Jasmine Xie, a New Jersey high school student, remarked: “Bernie Sanders [is] in all of our newsfeeds, and we’re pretty wired in. People start to believe in radical things because they hear it on social media.” Do you agree with this statement? Is social media driving the generational gap between older and younger female voters?

— About generational disagreements, Evelyn Bigini and Aria Dandawate, two high school students, discussed the need for a dialogue between all people on feminism. Is there a need for a conversation between older and younger feminists? How could such a conversation be started? In this new age, what are modern ways to be a feminist?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. All comments are moderated by Learning Network staff members, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.